This review is more of a comparisson between Saints Row 2 and Saints Row: The Third, TL;DR: I'd recommend it if you want to play it co-op or you haven't played SR2 or SRIV yet. I would not recommend it for a series veteran or someone who wants any sort of good plot or pacing. This whole review is taken out of me describing to one of my friends the difference between SRTT(which he has played) and SR2(which he hasn't).

If you remember Saints Row: The Third had Let's Pretend in a somewhat easily accessible and commonly reached area of the map and it wasn't really hard to get there, just get a jet and fly there. In SR2 I had to look up a ♥♥♥♥ing guide on all the different stores and where to find them. In SR:TT using silly weapons dressed up in a fursuit was the rule, not the exception. Among criticisms aimed at SR:TT not only is the story, as I said, ridiculous to the point where it just seems like SR2's humour misunderstood as "Oh yeah the jokes were seen as funny let's throw them in" when in reality the jokes were supported by the prolonged periods of seriousness that the protagonist showed while still being surrounded by a world of a pretty good mix of seriousness and stereotype.The pacing was, much like the story, also thrown overboard with all the subtelty that came to it. All the GTA Clone sandboxes start with the player owning nothing so they climb up to the top on a stairway of their own massacre victims and look down on the world and how far they've climbed up. This applies to all GTAs up to GTA V, the Saints Row games, even TT but to a MUCH lesser extent. In SR1 you join the smallest gang in the city, all in the middle of a gang war. SR2, you wake up from a coma, everyone you ever knew has either betrayed you or is currently dead or on their way to death(You save Gat from death row), and you have to take control of Stillwater back from the gangs that have set in after the Saints lost everything due to lack of leadership. In SRIV you're tossed into a virtual simulation of you having nothing and you win everything.In SR:TT the first mission gives you remote missiles and attack helicopters. Even the story in SR:TT relied all on whacky humour and was horribly paced in the sense that the beginning and ending felt separated from the otherwise alright-paced middle of the game. You could make an episodic game out of the beginning and ending and just take everything inbetween and release it as it's own full fledged sandbox game. Once Gat dies all seriousness and subtlety goes out the window, and it only comes back once you have to choose between saving one of two characters in the ending, neither character written well to the point of relating with either and having any sort of reason as to why you'd save either of them. Kinzie's the better developed character tbh. And it's weird cause I wonder if SR:TT was intentionally a watered down SR2, since the story is about the Saints becoming corporate ♥♥♥♥♥s making them intentionally a watered down version of their past selves. And Johnny Gat acknowledges it and then it's never even considered again. He has the balls to parody himself on robbing a ♥♥♥♥ing panic room dressed up as himself by saying "Everyone wants to be Johnny Gat", he questions them being watered down and brings up how they've traded in their ♥♥♥♥♥s to become corporate ♥♥♥♥♥s, "All for what? TV deals and an ♥♥♥-tasting energy drink?"Plus many of the systems in SR:TT feel like watered down systems of SR2, sort of like a parody of itself. The Grenades OR Consumables system is gone, as are consumables altogether. In SR1&2 you could drink, get high, etc., and it's weird cause you're under a combination of all of those effects in that one story mission with Zimos where he makes you his undercover agent(s) dressed as ♥♥♥♥♥(s) to infiltrate the one brothel so they could've just cut that effect in half and made items that were just triggers for them. Instead of having 4 slots for throwables/consumables and choosing what to fill in you get 4 throwables throughout the game and they fit in perfectly, no choice required(Which is why Bo hated SRTT in contrast with SR2) and even the clothing system is a bare-♥♥♥ replica of SR2's. You had socks, shoes, underpants, pants, undershirts, shirts, jackets, hats, many of these having different ways they can be worn(On one side, unbuttoned, tucked in/tucked out) and in SRTT you have upper body, bra, lower body, underwear, shoes. Way less choice and customization. Some of the SR2 activities like THROWING LITERAL HUMAN FECES AT THINGS and fightclub were gone and instead you got Genki's activity(Which is probably the most fun activity in and it was expanded upon in the DLC and the sequel, overall the most solid part of the game, and it's whackiness was different from the game's typical whackiness, thus contrasted way better than everything else)Plus SR2 also wanted to explain to you why what you were doing was justified even though there was no way under the Sun to justify that ♥♥♥♥ which ended in intentional-cringe-humour where you watched this guy get talked into throwing himself at cars for insurance money, or starts destroying ♥♥♥♥. In SR:TT the activities are barely explained as ZIMOS RUNS ESCORT SERVICE DO ESCORT PLEASE!!! and YOU ARE SCARED OF TIGER SO DRIVE IN CAR WITH TIGER!!! but most of the activities aren't even explained. In SR2 the protagonist just casually gets talked into setting themselves on fire in a fireproof outfit and driving a quadbike along a track setting things in their way on fire for money. It makes absolutely no sense but the game tries to explain it anyway and it comes out as comedic brilliance.In SR:TT the few activities getting explained are never said "no" to by the Boss and they've got a basic threadbare explaination that is played whacky. In SR2 the activities tend to be played straight-faced and completely self-aware, usually with the boss saying "No" at first glance, and the Boss is more relatable yet distant to the player as a result.SR2 had Gat as the comic relief character at many points, and the Boss filling in when he wasn't, however he wasn't afraid to get serious, and neither was the Boss. In SR:TT everyone's the comic relief character and as such the comedy doesn't really relieve anything. There's no non-comedy to be relieved from.Ok that was all, good luck actually reading all this ♥♥♥♥. If you do want to try and see how far you can read into it, the first message after me typing five messages in all caps is the first message about Saints Row.oh and also I forgot to mention SR2 not only had better writing and pacing but it also had enviromental storytelling and worldbuilding that was just fantastic, from the world actually having attractions and places to visit that stood out from the rest of the entire map, but there were things civilians would do that were just great to watch and made the world come alive. In SR2 if stood still for 20 seconds your character would do an idle animation, and sometimes if you were near an "action node" that wasn't occupied by a civilian you would do that action node yourself. The protagonist could ape the civilians in selling hotdogs, buying hotdogs, joining cheerleader teams, conversation with the civilians, examining products on shelves in-stores, etc. and the civs were actually pretty cool and weren't just street-roaming zombies like in SRTT/SRIV. They'd go streaking, they'd get in trouble with gangs, they'd get in trouble with the law, they'd even commit suicide and it was so cool in a morbid sort of way. Jumping off rooftops, jumping off bridges, you name it. It'd be so ♥♥♥♥ing hilarious if the devs didn't make the suicide action nodes AI only and let you commit suicide by accident by just being idle in the wrong area. Just go pick up the phone and have your Boss toss himself off a ♥♥♥♥ing building. It'd be great.

well.... the game that ruined the series, ugh this is saints row 3, i mean the story was decent, but after it becomes so boring, no cool weapons, citizens are ugly, worn down city. I'd say get sr2 or s4, you'd probaly get 3x the playing time than this game.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins.For the cake, place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, or electric whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined. Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. (The cake mixture will now be very liquid.)Divide the cake batter between the sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely, still in their tins, before icing.For the chocolate icing, heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until the chocolate melts. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk the mixture until smooth, glossy and thickened. Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours, or until thick enough to spread over the cake.To assemble the cake, run a round-bladed knife around the inside of the cake tins to loosen the cakes. Carefully remove the cakes from the tins.Spread a little chocolate icing over the top of one of the chocolate cakes, then carefully top with the other cake.Transfer the cake to a serving plate and ice the cake all over with the chocolate icing, using a palette knife.